Quotes by Alice Hoffman

[Eddie] wondered if every criminal saw himself as the hero of his own story and if every thankless son was convinced hed been mistreated by his father.

...and so many orchards circled the village that on some crisp October afternoons the whole wold smelled like pie.

Although my father had never been there, I came to believe I would someday see that city for him.

All the characters in my books are imagined, but all have a bit of who I am in them - much like the characters in your dreams are all formed by who you are.

I think growing up is difficult and its a process that Im always interested in, with kids and adults, they are often on two different universes.

Among men and women, those in love do not always announce themselves with declarations and vows. But they are the ones who weep when youre gone. Who miss you every single night, especially when the sky is so deep and beautiful, and the ground so very cold.

Mothers always find ways to fit in the work - but then when youre working, you feel that you should be spending time with your children and then when youre with your children, youre thinking about working.

“Still anyone who trusts a serpent deserves its bite. The wise see a creature for what it is, not what it says it may be.”

“My mother was teaching me that the inside of something was not necessarily its outside. Always look carefully, she told me. Look with more than your eyes.”

“Unrequited love is so boring. Weeping under a blue-black sky is for suckers or maniacs.”

“But in battle you cannot tell another when it is his time to enter the World-to-Come, nor is it possible to keep any man in this world when he wishes to leave it behind.”

“There are some things, after all, that Sally Owens knows for certain: Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck. Fall in love whenever you can.”

“She knew it the way people say they know they are about to be hit by lightning, yet remain powerless to run, unable to avoid their fate. She panicked, as anyone might have when disparate parts of her life were about to crash into each other, certain to leave a path of anguish and debris. It was true that devotion could be lost as quickly as it was found, which was why some people insisted that love letters be written in ink. How easy it was for even the sweetest words to evaporate, only to be rewritten as impulse and infatuation might dictate. How unfortunate that love could not be taught or trained, like a seal or a dog. Instead it was a wolf on the prowl, with a mind of its own, and it made its own way, undeterred by the damage done. Love like this could turn honest people into liars and cheats, as it now did…”

“When all is said and done, the weather and love are the two elements about which one can never be sure.”

“...he had a way of taking your hand which made it clear hed have to be the one to let go.”

“Do you ever just put your arms out and just spin and spin and spin? Well, thats what love is like; everything inside of you tells you to stop before you fall, but for some reason you just keep going.”

“We are only an instant, thats true. But we are eternal.”